Ailing veterans increasingly turn to charities

Ailing veterans increasingly turn to charities

9:24 AM,
Feb. 21, 2013

Written by

Gregg Zoroya

Susan Rocco starts authorizing help on a litany of pleas from wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at 7 a.m. in her home north of Quantico, Va.

One is a young Marine veteran living in a shelter who needs clothing and electricity turned on so he can go back home; another is a Marine missing a leg who visits his parents, but needs a ramp built to get into their house; and a third is hospitalized for attempted suicide and his wife needs travel money to visit him.

Rocco is eastern-region case director for the military charity Semper Fi Fund. As the hours unwind through the day, she authorizes 34 grants ...